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RELIGION AND LIBERTY. 



DISCOURSE 



DELIVERED DEC. 17, 1840; 



THE DAY APPOINTED FOR PUBLIC THANKSGIVING BY 
THE GOVERNOR OF NEW-YORK, 



BY THOMAS H. SKINNER, 







NEW-YORK: 
WILEY AND PUTNAM, 161 BROADWAY, 

1841. 



■S: 



36 5 



Entered according to the act of Congress, in the year 1841, 

BY WILEY & PUTNAM, 

In the Clerk's office of District Court of the Southern District of New- York. 



r 



PRINTED BY 

WILLIAM OSBORN 

88 William-street. 



PREFACE 



If the population of this country continues to in- 
crease in the same ratio in which it has hitherto 
done, it will amount a century hence, to three hun- 
dred millions. And if the happiness of the nation, 
and its influence on other nations, shall but propor- 
tionally increase, (and are there not grounds of hope 
for more than this 1) scenes surpassing fable will be 
realized in all the earth, by the grand-children of the 
present generation. On the other hand, should this 
asylum and fair heritage of Liberty become its grave, 
and Despotism with a rod of iron reign in its place, 
the last hope of the world would be interminably 
deferred. 

The publication of this Discourse, springs chiefly 



IV 

from a hope that possibly some one of its readers 
may be induced, by means of it, to seek more intelli- 
gently, more fervently, more devotedly, more prayer- 
fully, than he otherwise would have done, the ad- 
vance unto complete success, of that great experi- 
ment of national self-government, which is now in 
its eventful process in this land. The Discourse, as 
the reader will perceive, was not intended for 
the press, and has been given to it, with a few 
verbal changes and one or two additional paragraphs, 
in compliance with the solicitation of those who 
heard it. 

The short appendices which have been subjoined, 
are designed to sharpen attention to the subjects to 
which they relate. The article in the Biblical Re- 
pository, entitled, Law Suited to Man, at its first 
appearance, excited my surprise by the boldness 
with which it assailed the foundations of our govern- 
ment, in favor of monarchy ; and I have been sur- 
prised still further, that to a piece so radical in doc- 
trine, so daring in purpose, so philosophical I do not 
say logical in its mode of reasoning, and so lively 
and often so beautiful in style, no reply, has been 



published. It has been left to insinuate the old 
leaven of scorn at Democracy, into the fervi4 
thoughts and speeches of American youth, without 
the check, so far as I know, of the least open indica- 
tion of unwillingness on the part of any friend of 
the constitution. Let not this late reference to it be 
thought unwise, as if it were but molesting it in its 
tomb, and perhaps causing peril of a resurrection ; 
for if this production be so soon dead, its spirit lives, 
and works, and if signs are not unusually deceptive 
in this case, it may be distinctly recognised in several 
demonstrations of a nascent anti-republicanism, 
among a class of ardent, ingenious and aspiring minds, 
which, in their maturity, we should not desire to see 
enlisted in opposition to our country's honor. It will 
doubtless continue to exert itself, not the less effec- 
tually, because it enjoys the advantages of silence, 
until its delirious teachings are exposed and confuted 
by solid and unanswerable argument. 

The confidence in our government, which has been 
generally renewed and confirmed by the calm and 
peaceful manner, so creditable to all parties, in which 
the popular ferment connected with the recent politi- 



VI 

cal contest, passed away, should not for a moment 
induce a sense of indolent security, but should rather 
encourage us to deeper investigations of principles 
and first truths, our soundness or unsoundness as to 
which, is the rock or the quicksand on which our in- 
stitutions are built. If law as suited to man must 
universally clothe itself in the form for which the 
essay in question boldly contends, in avowed contra- 
vention of the doctrine on this subject, assumed in 
our government, then did our fathers adopt a funda- 
mental mistake which cannot be corrected too soon. 

It is an omen of good to the country, that the pul- 
pit has at the present season, in so many instances, 
sought to give a religious direction to the feelings and 
thoughts of men, in relation, specifically, to their 
civil interests and privileges. The separation of the 
Church from the State, does not deprive the sacred 
desk of its inalienable right to insist, with higher than 
any human authority, that all human affairs, whether 
of State or Church, be conducted in the spirit and 
according to the precepts of the Gospel ; and as it is 
unquestionable, that the remote conservative power 
of the republic, is religion, and that what, above all 



Vll 

things, constitutes our national importance, is the 
bearing of this empire on the last one the world is to 
know, that of the world's Redeemer, so the due con- 
sideration of these facts, will be of more power to in- 
sure a right administration of our government, than 
all things else, next to the influence of the Holy Spirit 
on the hearts of our rulers. 



DISCOURSE. 



HAPPY IS THAT PEOPLE THAT IS IN SUCH A CASE. 
Psalm cxliv. 15. 



There has recently been a high civil 
excitement in our nation. Throughout 
the length and breadth of the land, men, 
women, and even children, were swayed 
by the intensest political feeling. The 
entire mass of the population was in 
commotion. All hearts were palpitating 
with the liveliest anxiety ; all counte- 
nances were full of it ; all tongues 
were telling of it ; all hands and feet were 
employed in swift obedience to its impulses : 
It interfered with business, it disturbed 
2 



10 

domestic tranquillity, the meek face of re- 
ligion itself was discomposed by it ; fears 
began to spread as to whereunto it would 
grow, and some persons thought that the 
very foundations of the empire were tremu- 
lous. 

The crisis came, and passed, unattended 
by the anticipated troubles. Almost in- 
stantaneously, the excitement subsided, the 
nation was at rest ; and, to-day, amidst as 
great and manifold blessings as ever have 
been given to a people, the citizens of the 
commonwealth, of all parties, are, with 
one accord and with no perceptible change 
in their kind feelings towards one another, 
meeting together in their several sanctua- 
ries, at the call of their civil ruler, to ren- 
der unto God their annual tribute of praise 
and thanksgiving. 

Placing myself under the influences of 
the occasion, and especially of that signal 



11 

instance of the Divine goodness, whereby 
the tumultuous feeling of this great na- 
tion has been so soon tranquillized, with- 
out permitting the least violent eruption 
thereof, among any portion of the people, 
the causes for thanksgiving, which occur 
to me, as most properly claiming our 
thoughts to-day, are those which are em- 
braced, — In our civil institutions, — the 
existing relations between these and reli- 
gion, — and the care which Providence hath 
extended to this country, both as to its 
temporal and spiritual well-being. 

Perhaps the introduction of the two 
former of these topics into discourse from 
the pulpit, will not please a certain portion 
of my hearers, whom as much as any 
others I am unwilling to displease ; — those I 
mean whose feelings are the most deeply 
spiritual ; — but when I consider, that the 
most spiritual religion, if genuine, is also 
the most Biblical and the most humble, 



12 

and that the Bible discourses much of civil 
government, and of the relations and du- 
ties, both of the State to the Church, and 
of the Church to the State ; and when I 
also remember the character of the day and 
the occasion of our assemblage, I think I 
have an apology for touching upon these 
heads, which this part of the auditory will, 
on reflection, admit to be sufficient. 



There is in all respects a close connec- 
tion between the civil institutions of a 
people and their happiness. No govern- 
ment indeed can make a people happy, 
independently of themselves as individuals. 
Every man, be his social relations and 
privileges what they may, must attend to 
his own affairs, cultivate his own mind, 
heart and manners, provide for his own 
household, and place his dependence for 
success not on an arm of flesh, however 
powerful, but exclusively on the grace and 



13 

blessing of God. A happy people, who 
are individually indolent, self-indulgent, 
infidel, immoral, or irreligious, never has 
had, and never can have existence. The 
Zidonians, it is said, lived carelessly, at 
quiet and secure ; and the Cretians, accord- 
ing to one of themselves, were alvvay 
liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. But these 
were degraded nations who without refor- 
mation could have derived little advantage 
from any form of government. Their 
own corruption rendered their very 
existence a curse, and brought it, of 
necessity, to a speedy termination. But 
though government can do nothing to 
give happiness to a community of im- 
penitent idlers, or vagrants, or despera- 
does, or infidels, it may do much to render 
a virtuous people unhappy and vicious. 
It may multiply upon them its unrighteous 
impositions and oppressions until they 
are crushed by their insupportable burdens. 
It may also, on the other hand, exert a 
2* " 



14 

reclaiming influence on a degraded peo- 
ple : it may give such encouragements to 
industry, to enterprise, to education, to 
morals, and to religion, that by the divine 
blessing even such a people may rise 
under its fostering hand, to great virtue, 
intelligence, and strength. In the very 
bosom of corruption, it has been truly 
said, Lycurgus regenerated Sparta, and 
gave her a degree of strength and 
stability, by which for a series of years 
she was enabled to wield the sceptre of 
Greece. In these remarks, we do but 
propound the lesson of universal history* 

What form of government is most 
favorable to national happiness has been 
the subject of the most earnest and pro- 
found inquiry which has ever been prose- 
cuted among men. The actual preference 
of the nations has, on the whole, been in 
favor of monarchy : but for this prefer- 
ence reasons may have existed which by 
no means justified it. 



15 

Monarchy indulges national pride. A 
people with a king or emperor at their 
head, see themselves in their monarch and 
his court ; and are proud of his magnify 
cence as if it were their own, though its 
price, perhaps, is their deep abasement 
and servitude. And this infatuation of the 
national heart is in another way confirmed. 
While monarchy, as is natural, seeks to 
greaten itself, it seeks, as a means to 
this end, to aggrandize the nation, in a 
certain sense ; — to aggrandize it, that is, 
as far forth as this can be done, by such 
means as rearing great national monu- 
ments, by creating mighty armies and 
navies, and by increasing to the uttermost, 
the national territory and the national 
revenue. 

Now the love of pre-eminence, especially 
in grandeur of state and appearance, is an 
element of our natural depravity, and it is 
not surprising, however much to be la- 



16 

merited, that man should prefer what gives 
him the best advantages for indulging this 
propensity of his evil heart. If it be said 
that the pursuit of national greatness in the 
sense and manner here mentioned, is in- 
consistent with national happiness, I grant 
it ; and have only to reply, that this, though 
a perfect argument against the pursuit, 
does not hinder its actual and ardent pro- 
secution ; and for this obvious reason, that 
it is another characteristic of depraved and 
sinful man, that the love of fame and dis- 
tinction blinds him to his true welfare and 
honor. 

This, in part, accounts for the predomi- 
nance of despotic governments. The 
doctrine has been advanced, that monarchy 
is natural to man. It is, we suppose, natu- 
ral to him, as a self-important and self- 
admiring creature, and if it be well to ac- 
commodate and indulge him in respect to 
this trait of his moral degeneracy, then is 



17 

monarchy, doubtless, the best form of 
government. 

It may be further said, in explanation of 
the fact that mankind have generally pre- 
ferred monarchy, that their choice in this 
matter has been almost co-incident with 
necessity. The ignorance and corrup- 
tion of the nations over whom it has 
been established, have demanded that 
kind of civil rule for them, as the only kind, 
in their case, practicable. It cannot be de- 
nied that monarchy was most desirable for 
them, if they could not well subsist as civil 
communities under any other government. 
Where the people govern themselves, as 
they do in this country, they must be, in 
some measure, intelligent and virtuous, or 
they will hardly have commenced before 
they will have ended their political career. 
If knowledge and moral principle be want- 
ing in the governing power, it must stand 
by main strength, if it stand at all. There 



18 

are no permanent foundations for repub- 
lican governments to rest upon, but popu- 
lar intelligence, and popular virtue. Mo- 
narchy leans upon power and pride, the 
only adequate pillars of government, where 
the mass of the people are degenerate and 
vicious. * 

Some advocates of monarchy would fain 
rest their cause on the authority of God. 
They have endeavored to maintain what 
they call the Divine right of kings :— that 
is, an " inherent right to govern, independ- 
ently of the powers which the municipal 
law of each state confides to them."f But 
Christianity teaches its disciples to obey the 
powers that be, whether kings or prefects 
of whatever name or rank, — to submit 
themselves to every ordinance of man, 
whether proceeding from a throne, or a re- 
publican congress and cabinet like our 
own ;f and let those who assume that 

*Note A. tNote B. 



19 

God has any special pleasure in kings, 
read in the first chapter of the eighth book 
of Samuel, what he directed the prophet 
to say to Israel, on giving them their 
request for a regal form of govern- 
ment.* " Hearken unto their voice ; how- 
beit, yet protest solemnly unto them, — 
This will be the manner of the king that 
shall reign over you : He will take your 
sons, and appoint them for himself, for 
his chariots, and to be his horsemen ; and 
some shall run before his chariots. And 
he will appoint him captains over thou- 
sands, and captains over fifties ; and will 
set them to sow his ground, and to reap 
his harvest, and to make his instruments 
of war, and instruments of his chariots; 
And he will take your daughters to be con- 
fectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be 
bakers. And he will take your fields, and 
your vineyards, and your olive yards, even 

*Note C. 



£0 

the best of them, and give them to his 
servants. And he will take the tenth of 
your seed, and of your vineyards, and give 
to his officers and to his servants. And 
he will take your men-servants and your 
maid-servants, and your goodliest young 
men, and your asses, and put them to his 
work. He will take the tenth of your 
sheep : and ye shall be his servants. And 
ye shall cry out in that day, because of 
your king which ye shall have chosen 
you ; and the Lord will not hear you in 
that day." 

It is not ours, to have a king over us, 
like most of the other nations. There 
are, we regret to say, a few even amongst 
ourselves, who think this a great calamity, 
and surmise concerning the illustrious wof 
ihies of the American revolution, that in 
adopting our form of government, they were 
influenced by hatred of the mother country, 
not by an enlightened and dispassionate 



21 

judgment that this form was preferable in 
itself.* There are none, it is hoped, who 
would cherish the spirit of insurrection, but 
there are those, and they seem to be 
multiplying with the increasing facilities of 
intercourse with foreign nations, who are 
so mortified at the comparison of our un- 
ripe youth and our republican plainness, 
with the venerable antiquity, the grandeur 
and pomp, the centralized and ostentatious 
power of European states, that they cannot 
suppress expressions of discontent at their 
own interesting country. We cannot in 
many respects bear a comparison with 
older empires, but we are far more than 
satisfied with our own political condi- 
tion. The actual happiness of our peo- 
ple speaks nothing to the dispraise of 
our institutions. All do and must ad- 
mit that the sun in his circuit round 
the globe, shines on no land so distin- 

* Note D. 

3 






22 

guished in the mass of its population, by 
virtue, by intelligence, by religion, and 
by the abundance of every temporal 
good — the legitimate fruits, under God's 
blessing, of the government which in his 
high and gracious Providence he has es- 
tablished over us. 

It has been feared by some, by others 
hoped, that our government will not last ; 
and these hopes and fears have been ex- 
cited by reference to the fortunes of ancient 
republics, to our national sins, and to cer- 
tain unpleasant indications among our- 
selves. But while there are causes of 
peril enough to keep us circumspect, 
there are also many encouragements to 
our confidence in the stability of our con- 
stitution. The intellectual, moral, and 
religious character of the nation ; our se- 
paration by the ocean, three thousand miles 
wide, from the rank luxury and corruption, 
the gross superstitions, the christianized 



23 

heathenism, the legalized vices and crimes 
of the old world ; the nature of the events 
directly connected with the revolution ; the 
character of the Fathers and Founders of 
the republic ; the surprising success of our 
experiment of self-government thus far ; 
the advantage which our republic pos- 
sesses, in the lateness of its period in the 
world's history, and the lessons which have 
been given to it, by the mistakes, and 
ill-fortunes of other governments, past 
and existing ; the rapid and irresistible 
advance of the spirit of our democracy, in 
the European states ; the great ends which 
Divine Providence seems to be pur- 
suing in and through the instrumenta- 
lity of this nation, in furtherance of its eter- 
nal, all-comprehending Design ; and the 
very signal interpositions of that Providence, 
for ourprotection, both against foreign and 
internal disturbances : — some of these 
considerations supply more, some less, of 
aliment to our hope, but taking them in 



24 

mass, they fill our hearts with joy and our 
lips with high and triumphant praise, that 
the lines have fallen to us in this, rather 
than in any other land. We seek the 
peace, we rejoice in the prosperity of all 
other countries, but we have no desire to 
expatriate ourselves : preferring greatly 
our young republic, with its disadvantages 
of inexperience and immaturity, to all the 
delights which can be enjoyed in the 
proud cities and courts where despotic 
power has performed and displayed its 
mightiest works. 

We felicitate ourselves also and give 
thanks to God, on account of the Relation 
existing in this country, between the civil 
Government and Religion. 

We are not of the opinion — more than 
those who look upon us as a nation of 
atheists because our civil constitution 
omits the name of God— that governments 



25 

have a right to be irreligious or unchristian. 
Christianity is the law of the universe. It 
should control alike rulers and ruled. Cabi- 
nets, legislatures, courts, all political mea- 
sures and proceedings, as well as the affairs 
of each private citizen, should be regulated 
by the spirit and precepts of the Gospel. 
All human conduct is to be judged by this 
standard at last, and all kings, presidents, 
and nations, will be condemned by it if found 
guilty of either its violation or its neglect. 
So, it is written : All kings shall fall down 
before him ; all nations shall serve him. 
The nation and kingdom that will not 
serve thee shall perish ; yea, those nations 
shall be utterly wasted. 

Nevertheless, we are not convinced 
that the governments of this world and 
the Church of Christ should be so allied 
to each other, as in other lands they have 
been since Constantine's day, and as they 
still are to a great though decreasing ex- 
3* 



26 

tent. Christianity certainly has not en- 
joined such an alliance* Christianity is a 
law to governments, and a law also to the 
Church, and if it hath commanded the con- 
nexion in question, it should universally 
take place ; and in offering our thanks for 
its non-existence in this country, we should 
be guilty of the highest insolence toward 
Heaven. But the religion of Christ began 
its course without issuing any such man- 
date, either to the Church or to the empire 
of Rome, and in a condition of perfect inde- 
pendence of the State, nay with the State 
in active opposition, it made its tri- 
umphant and glorious way through the civi- 
lized world. And when, after having ac- 
quired the ascendancy, the union of the 
Church with the State was consummated, 
proof thatviolence had been thereby offered 
to the spirit of the Gospel began forthwith 
to abound, in the prevalence of mongrel and 
monstrous evils ; and such proof has, with 
local and transient restraints, continued 
more and more to abound, from that day 



27 

to the present. And it is to us a palpable 
certainty, that the Christian religion will not 
become the religion of man, the actual law 
of all states and persons, until the complete 
divorce of the Church has been effected. 

It is not at the option of the State to es- 
pouse the Church ; nor is the Church per- 
mitted to be married to the State. Christi- 
anity contradicts the bans. The people of 
Christ, in their distinctive character, are 
free of human legislation and human au- 
thority, and so are required to remain. 
Be not ye the servants of men. With this 
liberty Christ himself hath invested them, 
and they have no right to disfranchise 
themselves. As subjects or citizens they 
must obey the powers that be,* so far 
forth as these powers, in their laws and 
administrations, do not disobey Christ. 
As Christians, that is, in their spiritual 
and eternal relations and interests, there 

* NoteE. 



23 

is no king over them but Christ ; and he 
who makes himself their king usurps the 
throne of the Blessed and Only Potentate, 
the King of kings and Lord of lords. And 
they virtually renounce allegiance to this 
Almighty Sovereign, when they yield them- 
selves, whether of consent or constraint, to 
such usurpation. 

Christians are bound by their religion 
to obey magistrates in the exercise of the 
authority intrusted to them by law. Ru- 
lers are ordained of Christ, the Supreme 
Ruler of heaven and earth, to their appro- 
priate functions. They are his ministers, 
revengers to execute wrath upon them 
that do evil. But however exalted, they 
are under obedience to him who assigns 
them, in his sovereign providence, their 
stations and their spheres ; and it becomes 
them, not less than others, to beware 
that they go not beyond their prescribed 
and proper limits. They do it at a peril 



29 

great in proportion to their degrees of ele- 
vation and authority. They, as much as 
others, must serve Christ in their place, 
but they will incur aggravated guilt, if 
they interfere in the least measure with 
that spiritual liberty wherewith He hath 
made his redeemed people free, and 
wherein He hath commanded them to 
remain steadfast and immoveable. 

If we are inquired of more particularly 
as to the nature of this liberty, our answer 
is as follows. The governments that have 
espoused the Church,have undertaken to de- 
cide how she is to understand the scriptures, 
what she is to hold as articles of faith, and 
after what forms she is to offer her worship, 
and what orders she must acknowledge in 
her ministry : and they have taken authority, 
also, from time to time, to add to or dimin- 
ish in all respects ; and to make changes 
at their pleasure ; and, fearful to be told, 
they have enacted their decisions, in those 



30 

sacred matters, into laws ; and have em- 
ployed their own penalties to enforce con- 
formity in the professions and conduct 
of all Christians in all points. They 
have, to this end, compelled them 
against conscience, reason, and scripture, 
to pay heavy imposts ; they have confis- 
cated their goods ; they have cast them 
into prison ; they have shed their blood 
like water ; they have burned their bodies 
to ashes. Is it said that they have done 
these things with the consent and concur- 
rence of the Church herself? This we 
know ; but we do not see that it alleviates 
in the least these terrible enormities. 
The Church, we have said, is herself 
recreant to Christ, in so far as relates 
to her entering into a connexion with 
the State, out of which these revolting 
iniquities spring. When the Roman em- 
pire decreed the establishment of Chris- 
tianity on such principles as this relation 
implies, the Church should have felt as did 






31 

her true and only Head, when Satan 
tempted him with the kingdoms and glory 
of the world. 

The appropriate liberty of a Christian, 
is that of which he is deprived by such 
measures of state legislation. It is liberty 
to read and understand the word of God 
for himself, to follow his conscience under 
guidance of that word, to control himself 
in all spiritual matters, according to his 
own convictions of right and duty, without 
interference from the magistrate, so long 
as he violates no strictly municipal law. 
No State, no Church, can take this im- 
munity from him without doing him an 
injury for which all temporal advantages 
were a poor compensation. This birth- 
right have the citizens of our happy re- 
public ; to sell it for any thing which may 
be obtained from a union of Church and 
State would be worse than a repetition of 
his folly who, for a single indulgence of 



appetite, relinquished the blessing of the 
first-born. The government under which 
we live, leaves us in absolute possession of 
it ; nay, it guarantees to us the perfect use 
of it, offering its broad shield for our protec- 
tion against every disturbance, from what- 
ever quarter. Ours is a land in which 
every man, in respect to religion, sitteth 
under his own vine and fig tree, while 
government instead of disturbing him, is 
a terror to every intruder, allowing none 
to molest him or make him afraid. Let 
us not undervalue our privilege. The old 
world has nothing to give us in exchange 
for it. 

There are those, however, who are as 
strenuous as ourselves against such a union 
of Church and State, as we have depreca- 
ted, who still look on separation as among 
the greatest of evils. They are against an 
alliance which gives the State the prece- 
dence, and makes the Church subordinate 



33 

and subservient, but one which enthrones 
the Church over the State, and puts all the 
resources and powers of the nation at the 
disposal of religion, to be employed mainly 
for spiritual purposes — to the establishment 
and furtherance of His kingdom who is 
Lord of all — seems to them the supreme 
object of desire, the most fitting, the most 
righteous, the most holy, the most blessed 
of all possible consummations. Others, 
besides professed papists, look upon such 
an arrangement as inferior only to the very 
order of heaven. Now we of course admit 
that the supremacy of Christianity over 
mankind, in all respects, should be abso- 
lute ; and if Christianity and the Church 
were identical in import, we should have 
no difference with these persons, but would 
emulate their zeal. The Church of Christ, 
however, consists of all true Christians 
scattered among all nations, and divided 
into various sects, and not exclusively of 
any one denomination ; and this renders 
4 



34 

the alliance in question an impossibility, 
and the hope of its accomplishment, the 
very extreme of fanatical ntopianism. The 
only relation of the kind contemplated 
which can exist, is not one in which the 
Church, in the true sense of the word, shall 
have the precedence over the State, but one 
in which a branch of the Church shall be 
armed with the sword against other branch- 
es, and be as effectually empowered to abo- 
lish Christian liberty as the State would be, 
if, by the terms of the compact, the control 
of the secular power remained in its hands, 
and the Church were but its dependant and 
its servant. In other words, the amalgama- 
tion must be one involving all the essentials 
of popery ; the claim of exclusive church- 
ship, the claim of infallibility, the claim of 
the prerogatives of the Almighty himself. 
We wish to live under no government, in no 
land, in no world, where a union of this 
sort has a vestige of favor in the eyes of 



35 

the majority. We should greatly prefer 
Chinese or Turkish despotism. 

Consistently with what has now been 
said, we may deeply regret, my hearers, 
that our government, or rather the admin- 
istration thereof, is not more decidedly 
religious, more thoroughly Christian. We 
may lament that our rulers are not deeply 
spiritual men, that our Congress is not 
composed of humble and exemplary disci- 
ples of our Lord, and that all our legis- 
lative, judicial and executive proceedings, 
are not governed by the spirit of the Gos- 
pel. Especially should we deplore that 
in some of our national acts and mea- 
sures, the rights of others have been 
invaded, and justice, faith, honor, and 
humanity outraged. This, and all gov- 
ernments, should with a warm zeal, and 
by all proper means,* encourage and 

* Note F. 



36 

foster, as well as protect, every interest of 
truth and righteousness. They are bound 
to do so, by their relation as servants to 
the Supreme Ruler of the world, and if 
they fail to do it, He will sooner or later 
reckon with them for the delinquency. 
But while we should grieve over the 
shortcomings and transgressions of our 
rulers, and be free as we have a right 
to be in our animadversions, and be faith- 
ful also in prayer, and in the use of all ap- 
propriate means of reformation in this res- 
pect, we should never cease to rejoice and 
give thanks to God, that it has been given 
to us, as Christians, to be exempt from 
such a connexion with the State, as would 
either give us any civil power over the 
latter, or give the latter power to lord it, 
in spiritual things, both over ourselves and 
our Saviour. If this exemption be an in- 
felicity, we know not what earthly happi- 
ness should be deemed a privilege. 



37 



The social condition, then, of the people 
of this country, embraces in its foundations 
the two elements of civil and religious 
freedom ; and it does this in a degree 
of perfection hitherto wholly unknown 
among the nations of the world. If it be 
possible for a people to build themselves 
up strongly, prosperously, and permanently, 
on such a social basis, their superiority 
in privilege will not be doubted ; they will 
naturally become a model-people to others. 
Other nations must soon perceive that 
they have a goodlier heritage than them- 
selves, and will not be long contented 
in their inferior condition, unless from 
despair of improving it. 

We believe that nations stand by the 
favor of that Divine Providence which sus- 
tains and superintends the universe. The 
Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men 
and giveth it to whomsoever he pleaseth. 
4* 



38 

Promotion cometh neither from the east 
nor from the west, nor from the south ; hut 
God is the judge, he putteth down one and 
setteth up another. By me kings reign, 
and princes decree justice. Monarchies 
are stronger, that is, less dependant on 
virtue and knowledge than republics, but 
they are not less dependant on God. In 
their utmost strength and greatness, they 
are as a potter's vessel in his hands, and if 
he will, they are dashed in pieces in a 
day. Republics, though in more immedi- 
ate danger from the predominance of mo- 
ral corruption, cannot be overthrown, if 
God be on their side* 

This republic has stood for more than 
half a century, and its fortunes thus far, have 
been such as greatly to encourage the 
hope, that it will continue, a monument 
and pattern of liberty, in the eyes of all 
nations, until the world's enfranchise- 
ment has taken place. Its growth, in 
moral, intellectual and physical strength, 



39 

is, for rapidity and constancy, without 
a parallel in the annals of the race. In 
our temporal interests we have not wanted 
one form of prosperity. Famine is un- 
known amongst us. The pestilence is 
unknown, in any such dreadful shape as 
is familiar every year in some parts of the 
old world. The health of our population 
may have suffered more than that of some 
countries from intemperance* and other 
causes ; but as to the general salubrity of 
our climate, the astonishing increase of the 
nation, and their proverbial enterprise, 
energy, nerve, and power cf endurance, 
are a sufficient attestation. Our land has 
always given us its increase, so abun- 
dantly, that though the consumers at 
home have been multiplying in a ratio 
which the fact alone makes credible, the 
looms, granaries, and warehouses of fo- 
reign and far distant countries are wit- 
nesses that we have had enough and 

* Note G. 



40 

to spare. We are but novices at the 
arts, for compared to the hoary states of 
the other continent, we are as vet but 
children of a day old, and we have had 
too much to do in felling the trees, and 
turning up the strong and rank soil of our 
great wilderness, to be sufficiently at leisure 
to make much proficiency in what may be 
termed higher civilization ; yet even in 
the arts, especially in such as are the most 
useful and important, we have made some 
attainments in which our pre-eminence 
over other nations is generously acknow- 
ledged by themselves. Our agriculture is 
far from perfect, in any part of our terri- 
tory, but as our prolific soil and genial 
climate, and the fostering care of our gov- 
ernment, have given the highest encour- 
agement to progress, in this grand respect, 
so our improvement here, has been great 
and manifest, and, excepting England 
only, we are not far behind those, 
who are most in advance. With equal 



41 

pace, at least, our commerce has prospered, 
ploughing every sea with its freighted 
ships, and adorning every port on the globe, 
with Freedom's more than royal banner of 
the stars and the stripes, and while import- 
ing foreign treasure, diffusing abroad the 
spirit of our nation. 

Neither has the mind of this nation, as 
developed in its Literature, discredited our 
institutions. The press of our mother- 
land has not always done itself honor, by 
its censures and scorn of us, in this par- 
ticular. It has forgotten our youth, it has 
overlooked our other disadvantages, it has 
imputed the peculiarities of a few writers 
as characteristic of the national literature. 
Tt has dealt with us, in short, as if it were 
moved rather with contempt, or envy if 
that were possible, than with the enlarged 
and liberal desire for the universal advance 
of truth, which belongs to the very genius 
of learning. A different treatment of us in 



42 

this respect, will soon be demanded by the 
general conviction that we deserve it, if vio- 
lence to that feeling has not already been 
done. Our authors have found their way 
into European universities and schools, 
and our Franklins, our Edwardses, our 
Dwights, our Stuarts, our Robinsons, our 
Beechers, our Waylands, our Irvings, our 
Bancrofts, ourPrescotts,our Marshalls, our 
Kents, our Storys, our Websters, our 
Ohannings, our Hitchcocks, our Hares, our 
Abbotts, our Wests, our Allstons, our Les- 
lies, and hosts of others whose names cannot 
be given, are becoming so well known in 
Europe, that it is not probable the assertion 
in the last Edinburgh Review, of "the 
marked absence in America of original 
efforts in literature, philosophy and the fine 
arts," will be often repeated. Nor is it possi- 
ble that by those who have heard of our sixty 
universities and colleges, of our forty pro- 
fessional schools, and of our plans and 
movements for popular education ; and 



43 

that we circulate among our people, eight 
hundred millions of newspapers in a year, 
and more than a hundred thousand copies 
of quarterly and monthly periodicals ; we 
should be looked upon as witnesses against 
the excellence of a republican form of 
government, by its having induced in us 
any apparent declension in respect of 
letters and the powers and productiveness 
of the intellect. The sober truth is, — let 
us remember it not with self-elation, but as 
cause for humble and adoring thankfulness 
to God— that this young republic is re- 
garded as an object of admiration by the 
intelligent and candid of all countries, on 
account of its unparalleled prosperity in 
nearly all respects. The consequence is 
necessary and unavoidable, namely, that 
it is exerting an irresistible and a swiftly- 
spreading influence among the European 
states. The democracy, says De Tocque- 
ville, very truly, which governs the Ameri- 



44 

can communities appears to be rapidly 
rising into favor in Europe. 

The course of our prosperity has not 
been of a perfectly uniform tenor. It has 
been impeded by war, it has been slightly 
disturbed by domestic difficulties ;* in re- 
spect to commerce, especially, it has been 
held in check during the last four years, by 
means of casualties and of great financial 
restraints both at home and abroad. But 
these afflictions are but new and most ani- 
mating incitements to hope, marking, as 
they do most decisively, the interposing 
hand of a merciful Providence to prevent 
our prosperity from becoming a snare. 

The chief proof of the Divine favor to 
this land, is yet to be mentioned. As all 
our temporal interests have flourished be- 
yond example under the friendly influence 

# Note H. 



45 

of the government, without formal union 
with the Church, so have all our spiritual 
interests in like manner flourished, without 
the formal coalition or patronage of the 
government. We have had no evidence, 
thus far, that a Church-establishment is 
necessary to Church-extension, in the true 
sense of the latter term ; or that God is 
angry with our nation as if it professed 
itself to be a nation of atheists, because 
it has not confounded the distinction in its 
civil constitution, between Csesar and 
Himself In no land has religion, in equal 
purity and power, insinuated itself into the 
mass of society ; — the appropriate result of 
the congeniality of republicanism, with the 
simple and equalizing spirit of the Gospel. 
We cannot, indeed, tell the visiter to our 
shores of such magnificent temples, cathe- 
drals, and other monuments of religious 
taste and pride ; such wealthy sees and be- 
nefices ; such opulent and titled clergymen ; 
such splendid and princely endowments ; as 
5 



46 

the Church in other lands has received 
through her alliance with the State. But we 
are conscious of no spiritual detriment from 
the want of such advantages as these, if 
advantages they be : we have church edi- 
fices of convenient size : we have enlight- 
ened, devoted, and laborious pastors : we 
have solid and thorough theologians, whose 
works hold no inferior place in the theolo- 
gical literature of the age ; we have theo- 
logical schools taught by professors of suf- 
ficient erudition, and of a vital and primi- 
tive piety ; we have Biblical scholars and 
expositors, to whom confessedly there are 
none superior, at least in the English lan- 
guage ; but more than all, we have, in a 
measure, a frequency, a power, and a con- 
tinuance, elsewhere unknown since the 
earliest times, the effusions of the Holy 
Spirit ; and as the consequence, the Church 
in this country has been distinguished, 
more and more, by glorious revivals of 
God's work, and by the growth and spread 



47 

of a manly, energetic, and missionary piety, 
more like that of the Apostles and first 
Christians, than has been exampled in any 
other nation. 

There is, it is true, an intense moral 
strife in this land. The powers of evil 
are at their work here as well as those of 
truth and goodness ; and we have strange 
demonstrations of almost every form of 
sin. But if sin with us has therampancy 
of youth, it wants that license of law, and 
that consent and countenance of public 
sentiment, which its very old age in other 
countries is thought to demand : — while 
the advance of the Gospel is resistless and 
steady, and the American Church in its 
various branches, and by its various asso- 
ciations for benevolent purposes, — " socie- 
ties of free consent," — is not only spread- 
ing itself over the entire extent of our own 
wide domain, but is diffusing the streams 
of salvation into the savage forests beyond 



48 

our frontier, and into the farthest parts of 
the heathen world ; and the praise of 
American missionaries is proclaimed in a 
manner creditable to christian candor and 
magnanimity, by the churches of every 
land. 

The final destination of this country is 
among the secrets of the future. There is 
no ground of its absolute security, either 
in its civil constitution, or its religious free- 
dom and advantages. But the considera- 
tion of it, in these respects, and also, of 
the rank which it has so speedily attained, 
of the influence which it is exerting among 
other nations, and especially, of the marked 
dispensations, both temporal and spiritual, 
of God's Providence towards it, inspires 
us with a high and very confident hope, 
that, undeserving as we are of the divine 
favor, and exposed as we are to peculiar 
dangers, our national existence and pros- 
perity have but commenced, and that in 



49 

us the empires of the world are to be 
greatly blessed ; and more than convince 
us, that our devout praise and our adoring 
gratitude and love, are due to God for 
giving us our being at this period of time, 
and assigning this new and free land to us 
as our dwelling-place. 



The spirit of the occasion would not be 
indulged, nor would the Divine name be 
fittingly hallowed, if we should terminate 
our remarks without adverting to causes for 
special gratitude and praise, which the past 
year has supplied. 

The year has been unusually replete 
with mercies. The pressure on trade and 
commerce has been alleviated. Business 
has been reviving. The earth, as if in 
sympathy with the returning gladness of the 
people, and wishing to promote it, has 
yielded a most exuberent increase. The 
5* 



50 

elements have been peaceful and genial, 
the seasons bland and clement. Our 
cities have been almost strangers to epi- 
demic disease ; nor has the pure country 
air been any where tainted with the breath 
of a spreading pestilence. Excepting the 
common tragedies of individual suicides 
and murders, violence has not been heard 
in our land ; wasting nor destruction with- 
in our borders. Reckless combinations, and 
disorderly assemblies and assaults, have 
been almost unknown. The majesty of 
Law has been acknowledged. Justice 
and order have been maintained. And 
our peace and friendly intercourse with 
foreign nations have been undisturbed. 

One of the civil blessings of the year 
demands a very distinct and prominent 
place in this enumeration. We refer to 
the manner in which the late political com- 
motion has passed : not to the change of 
administration in which it is to result, (on 



51 

that subject a syllable here would be impro- 
per,) but to the production of that change 
without popular violence, followed by the 
immediate restoration of the public tran- 
quillity. This event will enlighten other 
nations* as to the true spirit of that advan- 
cing and exemplary republicanism, which, 
distant as they are, they regard, as well 
they may, with the deepest self-concern. 
It will cherish mutual confidence and res- 
pect among our own citizens. It will ren- 
der the United States more united and 
immoveable in their preference of the es- 
tablished government. It has added ano- 
ther buttress to the magnificent edifice 
which freedom is building in this spacious, 
virgin land. May it never pass out of me- 
mory, and never be unassociated with a 
heart-felt conviction that it is a most distin- 
guished instance of the Divine goodness to 
the country. For though it is a certain and 
bright index of the national character, and 
of the genius of the government, it is not 



52 

the less manifestly, on that account, the 
doing of Him who stilleth the noise of the 
seas, the noise of the waves, and the tumult 
of the people. Whatever may be the 
measure of our public virtue, whatever the 
strength by which the heart of the nation 
is bound to its institutions, to suppose that 
a change like this, the attempt to produce 
which made the whole empire a tumul- 
tuous sea of party zeal, wherein the con- 
flict of opinions and interests was as when 
tempest meets tempest, and billow bounds 
against billow on the great and wide ocean ; 
— to suppose that such a change should 
be effected in such a manner and with such 
a perfect exemption from ill consequences, 
without the gracious oversight and ordering 
of God, is to renounce not only the doctrine 
of providence, but the lessons of universal 
experience and the reason of man. For 
our own part, while we reflect on this, so 
far as we know unprecedented event, in its 
various aspects, relations, and tendencies, 



53 

we cannot forbear applying to our own 
country, the concluding words of the bless- 
ing wherewith Moses, the man of God, 
blessed the children of Israel before his 
death : Happy art thou, O Israel, tvho is 
like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, 
the shield of thy help, and who is the sword 
of thy excellency ! And thine enemies 
shall be found liars unto thee, and thou 
shalt tread upon their high places. 

We have not yet mentioned the chief 
mercy of the year under review. It has 
added some alleviation to that dark and 
dense cloud of sin and guilt, which is 
almost the total sum of the world's past 
history. It is among the brightest, — nay is 
first among them, in one respect, — of those 
years which have been signalized by the 
outpouring of the Spirit upon our churches 
as years of the right hand of the Most High. 
The unusual reverses which had occurred 
in the fortunes and circumstances of men, 



54 

the mutations and destruction of property, 
the obstacles and discouragements to busi- 
ness, and the most solemn examples which 
Divine providence had given, of the pre- 
cariousness of human life, and the infinite 
uncertainty of all earthly happiness, made 
an uncommon impression on the commu- 
nity, which inclined them, most remarka- 
bly, to listen to the counsels of religion, 
and seek a better portion than earth can 
give. The teachers of religion improved 
the favorable occasion which these circum- 
stances produced, by enforcing the reflec- 
tions they prompted, — thus giving their 
ministrations peculiar facility of access to 
the heart, or making them, in the language 
of Scripture, a word on the wheels. Ear- 
nest, frequent, ceaseless prayer was made 
by the churches for the Divine blessing ; 
the Holy Spirit descended ; and earth and 
heaven rejoiced together at the repentance 
of thousands in different parts of the land. 



55 

But this is not the whole. In the annals 
of American missions, the last year stands 
so distinguished, that were it in the future, 
as an object of promise, we should almost 
unbelievingly say, Behold, if the Lord 
would make windoics in heaven might this 
thing be! ; and the expectation of what is 
now fact, would be thought the extreme of 
enthusiastic credulity. We need much 
grace to enable us to bear well the unpa- 
ralleled goodness of God. Sometimes, 
when reflecting on what remains to be 
done to give the Gospel its destined tri- 
umph, we fall into most unworthy misgiv- 
ings, in respect to the possibility of its ever 
having such a triumph ; when, on the con- 
trary, the intelligence arrives that a single 
year has given to the young churches of 
the Sandwich Islands' mission, ten thou- 
sand members, some persons may be so 
blinded to the real state of the world, 
if the greatness of the joy does not ren- 
der them unbelieving, as to think that 



56 

the days of labor and conflict, self-de- 
nial and prayer, are ended, and that hence- 
forth little remains to the Church, be- 
sides victories and rejoicings. The just 
improvement of this wonderful success of 
Christianity, will lead us to higher exer- 
cises of faith and expectation, and at the 
same time to a great increase of prayer, 
liberality, and labor, especially in the cause 
of foreign missions. 



We should not omit, my brethren, a dis- 
tinct reference, in the thanksgivings of this 
day, to the blessings which we, as a par- 
ticular church of Christ, have received du- 
ring the year; It has been one of the best 
of the years in our happy course. The effu- 
sions of the Spirit have not been at any time 
intermitted. They have descended upon 
us, as the rain on meadows newly-mown ; 
and when they have not been granted in 
this form, they have been imperceptibly 



57 

distilling on our hearts, as the dew on the 
tender herb. How refreshing have been 
our seasons of prayer ; how mighty, 
through God, the simple ministrations of 
the word and the sacraments. With 
what strange joy, what heavenly brightness 
and beauty of spirit, have the circles of our 
domestic and social relationships been 
filled by means of the conversion of our 
children and friends* 

The peculiar love of God has been be* 
stowed upon us in another form. We 
have received consolations under trials, 
more precious than all temporal blessings. 
God has made additions to his family in 
heaven, from our portion of his earthly 
household ; but when he removed them, 
he gave us such proofs that their departure 
was to themselves but passing to glory, that 
we could not but rejoice greatly in the midst 
of our tribulation, severe as it was. They 
left us, amid the brightest triumphs of faith, 
6 



5S 

with smiles on their features, with prayers 
exhortations and benedictions, on their lips, 
and with such absolute mastery over the 
terrors of death and the grave, that a 
translation itself were scarcely more desi- 
rable. 

Nor should we fail to make mention of 
the fact, that we are still enjoying the sweet 
and gentle visitations of the blessed Spirit. 
This is not so manifest as it has been, in 
instances of conversion, but it is seen no 
less decisively, in the lively exercises of 
grace among believers, and in the unusual 
delight which they take in their frequent 
meetings for prayer, meditation, and 
praise. 



We have, my dear friends, the highest 
causes for gratitude ; but you must permit 
me to remind you that christian gratitude 
consists of two elements ; a sense of the 



59 

Divine goodness, and a sense also of per- 
sonal dement. To give thanks without 
confessing our sins, is to act the pharisee's 
part, not that of the humble and grateful 
christian. We have unspeakable mercies, 
national and individual, temporal and spi- 
ritual ; but we have also, in each of these 
kinds, innumerable sins and transgres- 
sions; and these, we should remember, 
rise in turpitude and guilt in proportion 
to the number and value of the former. If 
we look abroad through the land, and take 
the just estimate of the public morals ; or 
if we look within, each one into himself, 
and take the just estimate of our own 
hearts, we shall find ourselves at a loss to 
decide, which is the greater wonder, that 
we and our country should be so disobe- 
dient to God, or that God should confer 
his mercies upon us, in all their various 
forms, and in such profusion and con- 
stancy. 



60 

We close the discourse with one word 
more. Praise is comely in the upright, and 
so is kindness to the poor, and it is in itself 
most good and beautiful, and Scripture re- 
commends,if it does not demand, that these 
two should be united in the observance of 
such a day as the present.* Shall they 
upon whom God hath emptied the full horn 
of his goodness, refuse to send portions to 
those for whom nothing is prepared ? No ; 
let us not present our thank-offerings to 
Heaven, without giving this evidence of 
their sincerity, lest we receive in return, 
this just rebuke : whoso hath this world's 
good, and seeth his brother have need, and 
shutteth up his bowels of compassion from 
him, how dwelleth the love of God in him ? 

* Nehemiah viii. 10 f 12, 



NOTES. 



& 



NOTES 



Note A. 

The pi inciple of Democracy, it has been said, is 
fatal to its preferableness as a form of government 
for any people. " Under the Democratical form, jpw&- 
lic virtue, pervading the hearts and conduct of the 
whole body of the people, is the animating and sus- 
taining principle. Every selfish and exclusive pur- 
pose must be relinquished by the individual ; and his 
country, its glory, and its happiness, must take entire 
possession of his breast." The author of this re- 
mark, (Edinburgh Encycloaepdia, Art. Government,) 
intending by it to express the reprobation of Demo- 
cracy, as perfectly Utopian, adds the contemptuous 
exclamation, "Proud distinction for popular govern- 
ment, if the principle were a sure consequence of the 
form !" But if there be any argument in the re- 
mark, — that is, if a government should be deemed 
ideal and visionary, unless the principle which sus- 
tains and animates it, has a perfect development, — 



64 

mankind should abandon themselves to anarchy, for 
such a development never has been and doubtless 
never will be realized. Why did not this writer 
think to bestow a portion of his scorn on monarchy, 
the preserving principle of which, "honor," is, ac- 
cording to his own showing, abundantly vain and illu- 
sory, and amounts, in its actual operation, to the sway 
of a jealousy, among nobles and people, for their 
respective and exclusive interests and consequence ? 
All perfection in government, whether in principle or 
administration, is ideal merely ; a republic demands 
more of virtue in the people, I say not ptcblic virtue 
in the sense of this writer, than a monarchy; but 
while it demands more to subsist upon, it may be more 
favorable to its growth, and if so the desire of all 
nations surely should be to live under this form of 
government. 



Note B. 



There are still champions for the doctrines of divine 
right and passive obedience. The divines of Oxford 
are contending for these doctrines, as well as for cer- 
tain other cognate ones relating to Church principles 
and practices. See Dr. Pusey's Sermon, on the 5th 



65 

of November, 1837. I subjoin an extract from an 
admirable notice of that Sermon in the Edinburgh 
Review for January, 1838. " They were in favor, 
it should seem," — the doctrines in question — " under 
Nebuchnadezzar and Darius the Mede. In England, 
1 they skulked in old homilies,' to use a phrase of 
Bolingbroke, before King James ; but were talked, 
written, and preached into vogue in that inglorious 
reign. In 1622 the University of Oxford solemnly 
sanctioned them ; and, by a noble stretch of her prin- 
ciples of discipline, enacted that all persons promoted 
to degrees, were to subscribe articles to that effect ; 
and to take an oath, that they not only at present 
detested the opposite opinion, but that they would at 
no future time entertain it ! In 1683 the same Uni- 
versity again proclaimed them by ' a solemn judg- 
ment and decree,' which, in 1709, the House of Lords 
was ill advised enough to condemn unanimously to 
the flames. But, by an unusual circumstance in 
human affairs, the burning of the decree by no means 
promoted its popularity ; and the doctrines in ques- 
tion went so quickly to sleep, that he who now 
arouses them from their century of oblivion, (Dr. 
Pusey) may fairly be termed an innovator. As such, 
we recommend him to the grave rebuke of that 
learned body whose repose he and his confederates 
disturb by their new fangled conceits. Our concern 



66 

is with the truth of his doctrines only ; the doctrines 
of one of the ablest, certainly the most learned of the 
writers of his party, on a subject not of mere his- 
torical interest, but applicable to every time, and 
perhaps in an especial manner to our own. We must 
therefore buckle on once more the armour of our old 
Revolution principles to meet this fresh antagonist, 
armour which has stood the buffets of an hundred 
and fifty years too well to be now laid aside at the 
first blast of a hostile challenge, even though wafted 
from the cloisters of Oxford." 

It is an interesting fact, that while in Great Britain, 
men of such strength as this reviewer of Dr. Pusey, 
are resisting these doctrines with such determination, 
there are those in this country, who agree with the 
reverend divine in politics, as well as in religion. 
An article in Vol. V. of the Biblical Repository, not 
only aims a blow at the root of our republican govern- 
ment, but seeks to support a government of the op- 
posite kind, consisting of " hereditary orders having 
their birth and power, not from us but from Law." 
The article is entitled, Law as suited to Man. Its 
arguments are philosophical, not Biblical ; but they 
go as far as there is any force in them to establish the 
doctrine of hereditary orders, on the highest con- 
ceivable foundation, that of the Divine "Will as res 



67 

vealed in the nature and propriety of things. And 
though "the hereditary orders," for which it contends 
in so bold a style, are not expressly made to embrace 
orders sacred as well as secular, its arguments com- 
prehend these in their boundless scope ; and thus 
would this writer give us, as from God himself, a 
monarchy with its nobles to rule the State and a 
hierarchy for the Church. 



Note C. 



What form of government existed among the Jews, 
previous to the establishment of monarchy ] The 
true answer to this question inflicts a death-blow, on 
the argument that Scripture is against Democracy. 
We give the answer in the following words of 
Dr. Pusey's powerful reviewer. " How can it be 
said that Scripture knows only of patriarchal and 
monarchical governments, and recognises no state of 
things ' Wherein the people had the power V For 
three hundred and thirty years, from the death of 
Joshua to the anointing of Saul, there was no sem- 
blance of patriarchal or regal power exercised among 
the Jews. ■ In those days there was no king in Israel ; 
every man did that which seemed good in his own 



6S 

eyes.' Jephthah, ' articled with the people,' to use 
the language of Locke. He agreed with the elders 
of Gilead, and ' the people made him head and cap- 
tain over them :' God ratified their choice, and he 
judged Israel six years. From this narrative, and 
that concerning Abimeleck, (Judges, chap, ix.,) it 
seems probable that those personages, who are in 
Scripture termed judges, were leaders chosen by the 
Jewish people in time of need to rule over them ; 
and that the general organization of the twelve tribes 
at that period was neither more nor less than repub- 
lican — unscriptural as the phrase may appear. Nor 
does it seem that they were less visited with the 
temporal blessings of their dispensation, whenever 
they rendered themselves worthy of them by their 
obedience in this period of their history, than after 
kings had been set over them as a punishment for 
their obstinacy." — Review of Dr. Pwey's Sermon on 
the 5th of November, 



Note D; 



That our Fathers were determined in their choice 
of republicanism, by hatred of the Mother Country, 
is supposed to be probable by the author of "Law as 



69 

Suited to Man." " Had the Constitution of England," 
he says, " at the time of our Revolution, been a De- 
mocracy — had her mandates come from the multi- 
tudinous assemblies of the people, and not from the 
single voiced throne ; had her troops been the peo- 
ple's and not the king's ; might not the feeling of 
resentment at a rabble's insult and wrong have 
gathered us round a newly founded throne ? Might 
not the hard, coarse oppression of the throng have 
refined us into a feeling of revolting against such an 
exhibition of power ] And might we not have seen 
a glory around a single head, and decorum and grace 
and fair proportions in rank above rank 1 Might not 
a popular form have been offensive to our taste, and 
the thought of a ruling crowd have stirred in us a 
fastidious scorn and pride." Bib. Repos.Vol. V. p. 2. 
One is inclined to ask, is it possible that the author 
of these remarks is acquainted with the history of 
the proceedings connected with the adoption of the 
Constitution of the United States ] 



70 



Note E. 

What is our duty to the State, during the pendency 
of a revolutionary contest ? 

The submission to authority required by Chris-- 
tianity, is not submission to men who undertake to 
govern without a right to do so. When one dynasty 
is overturned and another established, and in undis- 
puted authority, the Gospel demands non-resistance 
to the latter. " Whosoever resisteth the power re- 
sisteth the ordinance of God." But what power 
are we required to obey, when there are two powers 
in a State in opposition to each other, one that has 
authority to rule, and one that has not ? If the 
power now unauthorized, acquire the ascendancy 
and becomes established, it thereby acquires an au- 
thority which must on no pretext be resisted. But 
while the contest for supremacy lasts, the power 
which exercises itself according to authority, and the 
Christian on his responsibility to God must decide for 
himself, which of the rival powers does this, is that 
which Christianity declares for. In respect to the 
course required by the Gospel, when a power in 
authority does not exercise itself according to the 



71 

commission it has received, we cannot forbear giving 
place to the following lucid extract from the review 
of Dr. Pusey's Sermon. " Now we, in common with 
all supporters of the Revolution, contend, that no ra- 
tional difference can be shown to exist between opposi- 
tion to force offered by one exercising it, without any 
authority, and by one exercising it beyond the autho- 
rity with which the laws intrust him. It cannot be 
answered that it is the duty of the Christian to obey 
without examining the validity of the pretended au- 
thority. It is no doubt true, that it will not become 
him to make captious objections — eagerly to seek for 
and avail himself of flaws in title, or defects in form. 
But, in the last resort, he must needs judge whether 
the orders of a magistrate which he is called on to 
obey are within the range of that magistrate's jurisdic- 
tion. A parish constable is, so far as his office ex- 
tends, a ' power ordained of God,' as truly as the 
executive head of the States and it is just as plainly 
■a sin to oppose him. Suppose, in the exercise of his 
functions, he were to offer unprovoked violence to 
life, person, or property, grossly exceeding the limits 
of that power which the State allots him, would Dr. 
Pusey offer him resistance or no % If he would not, 
upon what principle does he justify resistance to a 
robber or a murderer ?" 



72 



Note F. 



The question, as to what means government con- 
sistently with Christian liberty may employ to pro- 
mote the religious improvement of the people, de- 
serves the best attention of American statesmen. To 
maintain that this is a matter with which the State is 
in no way concerned, is to be no less opposed in 
government to the good of the people, than to 
adopt the opposite doctrine that the State for 
its own safety should keep the business of religious 
instruction and all church affairs, under its own 
control. The latter principle is distinctively dis- 
owned by our constitution, as essential despotism, 
assuming, as it manifestly does, that the State is its 
own end, and the people but a means which it may 
use for itself, at its sovereign pleasure. Our doctrine 
is, that the end of government is the good of the 
governed, and hence, that when a State sacrifices the 
people's good to its own aggrandizement, it violates 
the fundamental principle of its existence. The 
great plea of the advocates of Church-establishments, 
the safety of the State, is admissible with us, no 
farther, than is consistent with the true interests and 
inalienable rights of the people. Now that one of 



73 

these and one which comprehends nearly every other, 
is Christian liberty, and that this is virtually destroyed 
at once, when the State takes the business affairs of 
religion into its own hand, are the highest of certain- 
ties, and it has been given to this country to know 
and understand them. It is not doubted, that the 
safety of the State depends on religion in the com- 
munity, but if religion itself is overthrown or endan- 
gered, by the interference of the government, the argu- 
ment in question, is not an argument for but against 
the principle in support of which it is advanced. It 
proves unanswerably, that the State must for its own 
safety, decline the control of religion. 

But must government therefore be wholly uncon- 
cerned as to the religious well-being of the nation % 
No, it would thereby convict itself before heaven and 
earth of having an irreligious spirit, and by examples 
of ungodliness in high places, it would take the most 
effectual way, to spread corruption through the land, 
and thus, if its safety lie in religion, sap its own 
foundations. No business in the universe, should be 
carried on, more strictly according to the principle 
of doing every thing in the name of Christ and to 
the glory of God, than that of making and adminis- 
tering law. 

7* 



74 

What now can the State do to promote religion 
among the people, without invading their sacred 
rights and privileges ? Much, in many ways. Be- 
tween legislative interference and absolute unconcern, 
there lies a wide field of favorable and most genial 
influences, where governors, legislators, and counsel- 
lors, may do a higher service to Christianity, next to 
its own appropriate ministry, than any other class of 
mankind. By standing before the eyes of the na- 
tion, examples, in their own persons, of the chris- 
tian virtues and graces ; by expressing openly and 
fully the Spirit of Christianity in their public acts, 
upon all proper occasions, as some of the governors 
hare done this year, in their thanksgiving jdi'o- 
clamations ; by giving all possible countenance to 
every interest of a purely catholic piety ; and by pro- 
viding ample means for popular education in sound 
science and morality ; — in these ways, State-encou- 
ragement might be given to the cause of our Re- 
deemer, which would almost make amends for the 
evils which have resulted from Church-establish- 
ments. 



75 



Note G. 



Whether the ravages of intemperance with us 
have been greater than in some other countries or 
not, they became so appalling, that the puritan spi- 
rit of our piety was roused by them into the most 
philanthropic zeal ; and in conformity with the pecu- 
liar genius of our people, it formed a voluntary com- 
bination against its existence ; and it has pursued 
its aim with a surprising degree of ardor and resolu- 
tion, from which the happiest and most unlooked 
for consequences have arisen. The history of this 
measure affords a strong rebuke to the pride and 
self-complacency of this world's wisdom. When 
the project of a National Temperance Society, fif- 
teen years since, was first announced, some persons 
regarded it with contempt, some with ridicule, and 
not a few even of those whose goodness kept them 
from discouraging the novel reform, could not but 
smile with incredulity, and almost wonder at them- 
selves while they gave it their countenance. How 
great the change which a few years have accomplished ! 
Now, not only religion in every denomination, but 
patriotism, political economy, physiology, literature, 



76 



and almost every enterprise of art and industry, are 
forward to speak the praises of this cause, and to 
rank those who first embarked in it, among the 
greatest of benefactors. Its triumphs have been 
astonishing. It is advancing in Sweden, in Norway, 
in Denmark, in Germany, in France, in Great Bri- 
tain, and more especially in Ireland, under the best 
auspices, and with the most animating success. 
May Grod give it every where, that effectual blessing 
of His Spirit, which has made it so prosperous in 
the land of its birth. 



Note H. 



The author of " Law as Suited to Man," is not per- 
haps as near to despair now, as he was in January, 
1835, when he came forth before the face of his coun- 
try, with utterances of patriotism such as these : 
" Need I speak of those reckless combinations of 
men, called mobs, which are breaking out over every 
part of the land 1 ? They are but the momentary 
eruption of those fires, which are burning at the very 
centre of our system itself. The principle may be 
found running through all classes of our society, from 



77 

the lowest up to the highest!" 1 And what morel 
My pen will not transcribe the rest of this rash and 
disdainful invective against America, from one of her 
own sons. According to him, the characteristics of 
our nation, characteristics proceeding, he says, from 
the Form of Law which is peculiar to us, are " a 
tyranny of opinion which leaves to no man the free- 
dom of his own thoughts ; a prying spirit which 
mouses him out in his most secret retirements ; and a 
meddling disposition which puts shackles upon the 
freedom of all his acts." We have more of grief than 
anger, at this indignity to our country, and hope that 
its author will yet see cause to retract it. When he 
wrote his article, he had reason to complain " of reck- 
less combinations, &c," but with the knowledge 
which he must have had of the prevalence of similar 
evils in England and elsewhere, at the same period, 
it did not become a man of his character, to give 
them as evidence of the peculiar genius of our form 
of government. 






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